Incumbent Kalifornsky school board candidate Patti Truesdell appears to have fended off two challengers in her bid for reelection. That’s after roughly 2,100 absentee and by-mail ballots counted by the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s canvass board pushed her into first place.
The race was tight after the first round of preliminary election results were reported. Just five votes separated Truesdell and challenger Shelby Oden, who was ahead on election night. Donna Anderson, a third candidate in the race, now trails Oden by just 15 votes.
Borough election results are still unofficial until assembly certification, scheduled for Tuesday’s meeting.
Other borough races are unchanged.
Mica VanBuskirk will replace Virginia Morgan on the school board’s east peninsula seat. Ash-lee Waddell will replace outgoing board president Zen Kelly.
The borough assembly is still on track to get five new members.
Scott Griebel will replace James Baisden on the assembly’s Kalifornsky seat. Sargeant Truesdell will replace Tyson Cox on the assembly’s Soldotna seat. And Dale Eichner will replace Leslie Morton on the assembly’s Sterling/Funny River seat. Lenora Niesen and Michael Hicks ran unopposed for the assembly’s Nikiski and Central seats, respectively.
Votes on ballot propositions are still largely decisive.
More than three-quarters of voters – 78.9% – supported increasing the borough’s residential property tax exemption by $25,000, from $50,000 to $75,000. And nearly two-thirds of voters — 63.5% — supported aligning the borough’s election day with the state and federal election day.
Voters also killed an effort to require that ballots be hand-counted in local elections. And voters oppose tying the borough’s sales tax cap to inflation. In Ninilchik, voters defeated an attempt to create a recreation service area that could have helped operate the community swimming pool.
